Knockdown modular rack



A. SPIEGL ETAL KNoCKDowN MODULAR RACK May 9, 1967 Filed may 24, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet l Ill', Lvllllli .IP/5L 5460/1/ INVENTORJ May 9, 1967 A. SPIEGI. ETAL 3,318,462

KNOCKDOWN MODULAR RACK Filed May 24, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 the most unskilled persons.

'United States Patent Office 3,318,462 Patented May 9, 1967 3,318,462 KNUCKDOWN MODULAR RACK Andrew Spiegl, 4603 Ethel Ave., Sherman Oaks, Calif. 91403, and Sidney H. Bacon, 18631 Pasadero Drive, Tarzana, Calif. 91356 Filed May 24, 1965, Ser. No. 458,179 4 Claims. (Cl. 211-177) This invention relates generally to supporting racks and has more particular reference to a novel knockdown modular rack.

The knockdown supporting rack of this invention is designed primarily for use as a garment rack. For this reason, the present rack will be described herein primarily in connection with this particular application thereof. As Will appear from the ensuing description, however, the principal features of the invention may be embodied in supporting racks for other purposes. Accordingly, the invention should not be regarded as limited in application to garment racks.

Garment racks are installed in a wide variety of social, business, industrial and other establishments, either for the convenience of patrons and/or employees, or for use in connection with the normal business activities of such establishments. Most hotels, assembly halls, and the like, for example, provide garment check racks for the convenience of their patrons. On the other hand, many industrial and business establishments, such as clothiers, dry cleaning plants, and the like, require garment racks in the course of their normal business activities. Garment racks of this type are preferably so constructed as to be collapsible for convenience of initial shipment to the purchaser, convenience of subsequent transportation from one location to another, when necessary, and convenience of storage when not in use.

To be completely practical, a collapsible garment rack must satisfy certain prerequisites. For example, the ideal collapsible garment rack will be simple in construction, economical to manufacture, and easy to assemble and disassemble. Thus, a rack with a large number of intricate parts, while it may be collapsible, is generally so costly to manufacture and diicult and time-consuming to assemble and disassemble as to render its collapsibility virtually worthless. The ideal garment rack, then, will have a minimum number of simply and inexpensively formed parts which may be quickly and easily assembled by even Garment racks of this type, of course, may be installed in spaces of widely varying size and shape. The ideal garment rack, therefore will be flexible in its manner of assembly so as to enable the overall size, shape, and arrangement of the rack to be adjusted in such a Way as to accommodate the rack to the particular space in which the rack is to be installed. In this regard, flexibility in the overall size, shape and arrangement of the assembled rack is also of importance from the standpoint of optimum utilization of the available space. The ideal garment rack will also possess the capability of adjustment of its various members in accordance with the particular garments or other articles to be supported. For example, in many applications of garment racks, it may be desirable or necessary to adjust the elevation and/or vary the number of horizontal supporting bars in a given rack. Such adjustment should be capable of quick and simple accomplishment. Finally, the ideal collapsible garment rack will possess sucient strength, ragidity and stability to support a large number of garments without danger of accidental collapse or tipping over and, in addition, will be light in weight and compact when collapsed for sh'pment or storage.

A wide variety of collapsible garment racks have been devised in the past. These existing racks, however, are deficient for one reason or the other, such as high cost,

complexity, diflculty of assembly and disassembly, lack of flexibility in the overall size, shape, and arrangement of the assembled rack, lack of adjustability, and so on. Accordingly, there is a definite need for an improved collapsible garment rack.

A particular requirement for collapsible garment racks is in the conduct of trade shows yor exhibits by garment manufacturers. Such shows or exhibits are frequently conducted in large hotels Where thousands of different garments are exhibited in hundreds of different rooms, and each exhibitor desires to achieve the most attractive display of his goods while at the same time utilizing all the room space available regardless of its size or conguration. But when the exhibit is over the garment racks must then be taken down and stored in a very small space until the next exhibit.

This invention provides such an improved knockdown garment rack. As noted earlier, however, the present collapsible rack may be used for other purposes. In this regard, it is significant to note that most, if not all, of the foregoing prerequisites of the ideal collapsible garment rack are also prerequisites of ideal racks for other purposes.

It is a general object of this invention, therefore, to provide an improved knockdown rack which satisfies most, if not all, of the foregoing prerequisites of the ideal collapsible rack.

A highly important object of the invention is to provide a knockdown rack which is characterized by its simplicity of construction, ease of assembly and disassembly, adjustability, strength and rigidity, minimum number of simple, inexpensively formed parts, flexibility of the final assembled size, shape, and arrangement of the rack, and economy of manufacture.

An important object of the invention related to the foregoing object is to provide a knockdown rack composed of simple tubular members that are formed in a new and unique Way to adapt the members for releasable interlocking engagement.

A further object of the invention is to provide a knockdown rack of the character described which is ideally suited for use as a garment rack.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the Various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter set forth, pointed out in the appended claims, and illustrated in the attached drawings.

InV these drawings:

FIGURE l is a perspective view of a knockdown ment rack according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front elevation of the left-hand section of the knockdown rack in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an end elevation of the rack section of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged section .taken on line 4 4 in FIGURE 3;

gar-

FIGURE 5 is a section taken on line 5-5 in FIG- URE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a section taken on line 6 6 in FIG- URE 5;

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view of a modified rack arrangement according to the invention;

FIGURE 8 is a perspective view illustrating a number of members of the rack knocked down and assembled for shipment or storage;

FIGURE 9 is a perspective view illustrating an initial step in forming certain connecting keys on the ends of the horizontal supporting bars of the rack; and

FIGURE 10 is a perspective view illustrating the final step involved in forming the connecting keys.

The knockdown rack 20 illustrated in these drawings is intended for use as a garment rack and comprises upright supporting posts 24 and 26. The several supporting posts 22 of the rack are identical, as are the supporting bars 24 and the supporting bars 26.

Each supporting post 22 comprises an upper tubular supporting member 23 and a lower supporting base 30. Both the supporting member 2S and base 30 are preferably constructed of commercially available, square metal tubing. The tube which forms the base is bent into the inverted U shape illustrated to define on the base a pair of depending legs 32. The upper connecting member of the base is welded or otherwise rigidly joined at its center to the lower end of the supporting member 2% of the post. The lower ends of the base legs 32 are preferably fitted with plastic or rubber caps 34 to restrain the rack against sliding on the floor and to prevent the legs from scratching or otherwise marring the door.

The upper tubular member 28 of each supporting post 22 has a multiplicity of vertically spaced, axially extending and aligned slots 36. Conceivably, each post may have slots in only one of its walls. Preferably, however, all four sides of each post -are provided with slots, as shown. Theslots are arranged in three vertically spaced sets, to wit, an upper set 36a, and an intermediate set 36b, and a lower set 36C. The corresponding slots 36 in each of these sets, at the four sides of the supporting post memberr22, are disposed at the same elevation above the base 30. The upper end of each post supporting member 28 is closed by a cap 38.

Each horizontal supporting bar 24 is preferably constructed of commerciallyV available round metal tubing.VV

The ends of each bar are shaped to form flat, slotted, connecting keys 40. As will be explained shortly, each connecting key 40 is engageable in a pair of adjacent slots Y36 and a supporting post 22 Vin such manner as to releasably interlock the post and bar. Each key 40 has flat contacting walls 42 with integrally joined upper and lower edges 44 and 46, respectively, and axially presented edges 48.

Formed in each key is an upper, generally L-shaped Y locking slot S0 and a lower locking slotY S2. The upper locking slot has one leg 50a disposed in a plane normal to the central axis of its respective supporting bar 24 and a lower leg Sb extending axially from the lower end of the slot leg 50a and through the axially presented key edges 48. The lower key slot 52 is disposed in the same normal plane as the upper leg 50a of the upper key slot 50.

The connecting keys 40 of the supporting bars 24 may be formed'in various ways. According to the preferred e practice of the invention, however,'these keys are formed by irst placing the ends of each bar on a mandrel 54 and then driving a ram 56 against the bar to atten the bar end, as shown in FIGURE 9. Thereafter, Vthe attened end of the bar is placed on a die 58, and a punch 60 is driven against the bar end and into the die cavity to form the key slots 50, 52, as illustrated in FIGURE 10.

The key slots 50, 52 define, on each connecting key 40, a pair of generally L-shaped locking tongues 62 and 64. The tongues 62, 64 on each supporting bar 24 are dimensioned for axial insertion through a pair of adjacent slots 36 in a supporting post 22 to an initial position wherein the upper key slots leg 50a and the lower key slot 52 are aligned with the respective post side wall. The supporting bar is then moved laterally toward the lower end of the post to shift the engaged locking key 40 downwardly in the slots to the locked position illustrated in FIGURE 6, wherein the post side wall portions at the lower ends of the slots engage inthe key slots, as shown. Y The supporting post 22 and supporting bar 24 are then releasably interlocked.. Disengagement of the bar and post is effected by reversing this procedure.

Accordingjto the preferred practice of the invention,

fthe locking tongues 62, 64 on each connecting key 40 are dimensioned to have -a slightly vloose iit in the post slots 22 and horizontal supporting bars- When assembling a collapsible rack 20 according to Y the invention, the supporting posts 22 and supporting bars 24 are interlocked in the manner explained above. The supporting bars, of course, may be located at any desired elevation along the posts. Generally, a completed rack will embody a pair of supporting bars 24, although three Y or more bars may be used, as shown in FIGURE 1.

It will be recalled that the post slots 36 are arranged in three vertically spaced sets 36a, 36b, and 36C. This facilitates placement of the ends of each supporting bar 24 at the same elevation. Thus, itis a simple matter to determine the corresponding slots in two adjacent sup porting posts 22 by counting the slots starting from the upper ends -or lower ends of the corresponding slot sets on the posts. This procedure of locating corresponding slots and adjacent posts to receive the ends of a supporting bar is easier, for example, than counting slots from one end of long continuous rows of slots.

It is evident at this point that several supporting posts 22 and supporting bars 24 of the invention may be -as-Y sembled in various arrangements to form garment racks in the assembled size, shape and arrangement of the rack'YV is due, in large part, to the fact that all sides of the supporting posts 22 are slotted, whereby supporting bars 24 may extend from one, two, three, or all four sides of each supporting post 22. VIn this connection, attentionk is-directed to FIGURE 6, wherein it will be observed that the locking tongues 62, V64| on each connecting key 40 are axially dimensioned to permit four supporting Vbars to be interlocked with the same supporting post 22 at the same elevation along the post. Each sup-porting bar 24, of course, may be located at any desired elevation by placing the connecting keys 4@ on the bar in the appropriate slots 36 in the posts. It is apparent, therefore, that several Vthereby to further increase the flexibility in the overall size, shape and arrangement of the nished rack.

When the present knockdown garment rack is disassembled, the supporting post 22 and supporting bars 24,

26 of t-he rack may be compactly stacked, as illustrated in FIGURE 8, for convenience of storage and shipment.Y As noted earlier, while the knockdown rack'of the' invention has been'disclosed herein in connection with its use as a garment rack, the principal features of the invention may be employed in collapsible racks for other pur-V poses. Accordingly, the invention should not be regarded as limited in application to Ygarment racks.V v Y While the invention has herein been shown and described in what is presently conceived to be its most prac- Y tical and preferred embodiment, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom Vwithin the scope of the invention, which is not to be limited to the details disclosed herein but is to be accorded the vfull scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent devices. We claim: Y Y. 1. A modular knockdown rack comprising: Va pair yofgenerally identical normally upright tubular supporting posts of rectangular cross-section, each said post having vertically spaced, axially extending and axially :aligned slots in at least two sides thereof and a lower supporting base; and a normally horizontal tubular supporting bar having its ends attened to form connecting keys engageable in adjacent pairs of said post slots, respectively, thereby to releasably interlock said bar and posts, each said key comprising tlat contacting side walls having integrally joined normally upper and lower edges and axially presented edges, there being a normally upper generally L- shaped locking slot in each said key having a rst leg disposed in a plane generally normal to the axis of the respective bar and a second leg extending from the lower end of said rst leg and axially through said axially presented edges of the respective key side walls, there being a second normally lower locking slot in each said key disposed in said plane of said first leg of the adjacent upper locking slot and opening through said normally lower edges of the respective key side walls, said locking slots of each said key defining upper and lower locking tongues engageable in an adjacent pair of said post slots, respectively; each said key having a position of interlocking engagement with its respective post wherein the wall portions of the respective post `below the respective upper and lower post slots engage in said rst slot leg and said lower slot, respectively, of the adjacent key,

2. A knockdown rack as claimed in claim 1 wherein said locking tongues are proportioned to lit loosely in the respectively associated post slots, thereby to permit a limited horizontal hinging movement of said bar relative to each of said posts.

3. A modular knockdown rack, comprising: a pair of generally identical normally upright tubular supporting posts of rectangular cross-section, each said post having vertically spaced, axially extending and axially aligned slots in at least two sides thereof and a lower supporting base; and a plurality of vertically spaced, normally horizontal tubular supporting bars of circular cross-section extending between said posts, each said bar having its ends 40 flattened to form a connecting key engageable in two adjacent post slots, thereby to releasably interlock said bars and posts, each said key comprising flat contacting side walls having inwardly joined normally upper and lower edges and axially presented edges, there being a normally upper generally L-shaped locking slot in each said key having a rst leg disposed in a plane generally normal to the axis of the respective bar and a second leg extending from the lower end of said rst leg axially through said axially presented edges of the respective key side walls, there being a normally lower locking slot in each said key disposed in said plane of said upper leg of the adjacent upper locking slot and opening through said normally lower edges of the respective key side walls, said locking slots of each said key defining upper and lower locking tongues engageable in a pair of adjacent post slots, respectively; each said key having a position of interlocking engagement with its respective post wherein the wall portions of the respective post below the respective upper and lower post slots engage in said first slot leg and said lower slot, respectively, of the adjacent connecting key; said supporting bars being ydisposed one above the other along said posts.

4. A knockdown rack as claimed in claim 3 wherein said locking tongues are proportioned to t loosely in the respectively associated post slots, thereby to permit a limited horizontal hinging movement of said bar relative to each of said posts.

References Cited by the Examinerl UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,803,016 4/1931 Harsted 24S- 225 2,674,476 4/ 1954 Grosso 287-535 3,045,834 7/1962, Seiz 211-148 3,154,833 11/1964 Kimball 25-131 3,157,252 11/1964 Tucker 52-298 3,194,407 7/ 1965 DAltrui 2711-148 FOREIGN PATENTS 877,649 9/1961 Great Britain.

CLAUDE LE ROY, Primary Examiner. W, D, LOULAN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A MODULAR KNOCKDOWN RACK COMPRISING: A PAIR OF GENERALLY IDENTICAL NORMALLY UPRIGHT TUBULAR SUPPORTING POSTS OF RECTANGULAR CROSS-SECTION, EACH SAID POST HAVING VERTICALLY SPACED, AXIALLY EXTENDING AND AXIALLY ALIGNED SLOTS IN AT LEAST TWO SIDES THEREOF AND A LOWER SUPPORTING BASE; AND A NORMALLY HORIZONTAL TUBULAR SUPPORTING BAR HAVING ITS ENDS FLATTENED TO FORM CONNECTING KEYS ENGAGEABLE IN ADJACENT PAIRS OF SAID POST SLOTS, RESPECTIVELY, THEREBY TO RELEASABLY INTERLOCK SAID BAR AND POSTS, EACH SAID KEY COMPRISING FLAT CONTACTING SIDE WALLS HAVING INTEGRALLY JOINED NORMALLY UPPER AND LOWER EDGES AND AXIALLY PRESENTED EDGES, THERE BEING A NORMALLY UPPER GENERALLY LSHAPED LOCKING SLOT IN EACH SAID KEY HAVING A FIRST LEG DISPOSED IN A PLANE GENERALLY NORMAL TO THE AXIS OF THE RESPECTIVE BAR AND A SECOND LEG EXTENDING FROM THE LOWER END OF SAID FIRST LEG AND AXIALLY THROUGH SAID AXIALLY PRE- 